For all cat lovers – if you keep birds don’t read this

The commotion and shouting was coming from the back yard. As I raced down the stairs into the kitchen a white streak of fur shot through the cat flap with a bird in its mouth. “My God” I thought in astonishment “the cat’s finally caught something”. Being white, lazy and pretty clumsy my cat was more of a sit on her arse type than a fisher or a catcher. The arrival of a new half-wild kitten into the household had obviously galvanised her into action. Merry would on a regular basis bring back birds, rodents and anything else she could lay her claws on. How can I forget that soft tickling feeling underfoot as I walked into the kitchen and discovered that I was treading on a carpet of feathers. Or the smell of dead mouse with the small amount offal left as a gift for me. Anyway Merry had thrown down the gauntlet and my white princess, feeling left out, took up the challenge.

The wailing continued and I poked my head out the back door. I was astonished to see the woman in the house behind me charging down my pathway in pursuit of my feline.

“Your cat” she shouted “Your cat has stolen my bird”. I ran back into the house, chased the cat around the house, cornered it and wrestled the bird out of its mouth. It was dead and a little muddy- which was strange.

The woman is going to sue me for compensation I thought as I stared down at the slightly chewed, soggy, yellow canary. I returned to the garden and proffered the deceased to her offering my condolences.

“Your cats are uncontrollable” she sobbed. “First, I find the brown one hanging from the bird-cage terrorising my Nigel” (apparently the little burgler had entered through a dog flap), and not content with scaring him to death the other one digs him up when we bury him”.

That’s my girls!

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

l lived for years with three cats, two Scottish terriers and several birds in large cages – never a mishap ! in my opinion a lot depends on the handling of the situation by the humans, on the training of the animals, and the general atmosphere vis-à-vis such a conjunction of animals. The cat of mine who was allowed outside did catch the occasional small and probably already sickly bird – and one time he brought to me a fat golden rat just as I was leaving for work – fortunately the poor rat was dead already ( but still warm…!), so it was easy to dispose of. When I came back from work that cat was still looking for his prize!.. Once the alpha Scottie was able to grab an opossum outside at 6:30 a.m. when I first let him out into the garden. By 7:30 I had to call the Wildlife Ranger to get the poor opossum because the Scottie would not let go of it…it was dead FOR REAL of course. The Scottie was also disappointed to have to relinquish his prize: he had only done his job of catching varmints ….
But inside nothing untoward ever happened.

In any case whoever leaves caged birds OUTSIDE unattended and unprotected is at fault for any harm that may comes to them – not only wandering cats, but rats and small raptors can easily take a caged bird outside.

Ha ha, great story! My cats don’t have a door to race out of, but there are lots of windows for them to look out and see birds and squirrels. They go absolutely berserk. I bet they would chase down a canary if they had the chance.

I’m a cat lover — but also a wild bird lover. My cats don’t run free outdoors, mostly for their own safety’s sake, but, I have to say, also for the sake of the many birds I attract to my feeders. Now if I could just keep my neighbor’s cat from stalking those feeders….